is there a tool that can take a folder on an ntfs partition and copy then convert it to an .img file?

I could make a 7z or winrar archive but would like something that I can mount with imdisk when needed.

Interesting approach. Why don't you put together a couple imdisk commands and a strarc one in a batch?Or you mean a GUI tool? That could be a feature of Clonedisk (if our good friend erwan.l is still affected by featuritis ).

Any reason why you cannot use a .iso making tool (like mkisofs or imgburn) for this?Imdisk can mount them .iso nicely and you would have the advantage of a RO filesystem which for archiving purposes protects nicely from accidental changes/overwrites.

I mean why it should necessarily be a .img? (if a .7z or .rar would be ok you would loose anyway some of the "NTFS only" file characteristics), the .iso (or CDFS) advantage is that size of the image is the same as needed by the contents, unless I am mistaken the only way to have the same with a .img is to pre-calculate the size of the image, and then create the image and format it before copying the folder to it.

I need to backup lots of data to another HDD, in the past I have just copy/paste but have experienced some corruption this way and I think moving .img around it is less likely to occur, no?

Not really-really, reliability should be the same, very probably speed will increase when transferring a largish image as opposed to a zillion tiny files.

yes, a gui tool for this would be best but if the only way possible is .cmd/.bat then I would try that way.

Ive thought about making .iso but I would rather be able to moved files in and out of it when mounted with imdisk and I was thinking that is not possible in .iso but if it is, is there a size limit to .iso?

.img would probably be best though since I have an idea how it would work for me.

I was also under the impression that moving data in an image format was safer than copy/paste. one reason I can think off is it is an all or nothing deal whereas Ive had trouble in the past with windows copy/past when it hit a long filename or some other minor problem and stops so Ive had to manually sort through hundreds of folders to find where it left off. the faster transfer rates would be a nice bonus too.

besides all that, I just really like Olaf and Erwan.l's tools. not only useful but they are so advanced that I learn alot just trying to figure them out. lol!

I really thought something like I describe would be already available but its another area where searching the words for it brings up everything else but what is related to what Im searching for.

cant figure a good search term for it..

I am not familiar with using a proxy and imdisk together, wouldnt even know where to start to learn how to go about that.

About imdisk, remember that with a proxy, you can more or less mount anything.

Sure, no issue in the "mounting" of *anything*, maybe some in the "creating" of the filesystem, if it's going to be a .img (partitioned) or even a .ima (superfloppy).Most probably a proxy for .7z would do nicely in the OP case but a .wim format would also do nicely.

What about this : create a dynamic VHD (like 100gig), format it, use it at will?It will grow dynamically as you stuff files in there.

I did not check but it could even be that you can use it from 7-zip.And you can definitely mount it with many different softwares (starting with windows itself).

Just thinking out loud...

Yep still you would have a crazy amount of "fixed" stuff (filesystem structures) inside it (if you go NTFS, and a crazily large FAT if going FAT32) for a 100 Gb image.Cannot say what exFAT would do, but I believe that it is still "heavy" on empty large filesystems .It would be interesting to delve deeper in the "least used ever" filesystem, the UDF which has built-in support on 7 (or maybe Vista ) and later, since it is also used as filesystem on CD/DVD it might be just the "right" solution.

thanks alacran, this seems very useful. the .vhd suggestion seems like it will work easier for what Im trying to do so I tried it first with dynamic .vhds but I have no experience with them and couldnt figure it out so next I try with fixed .vhd since I know how they work and that they will do exactly what I need. it just didnt occur to me when I asked here about it.

thanks all

edit: I just noticed that v77's "ProxyCrypt" seems to do what I was asking about except it does it with encryption. hmmmm.. might have to try it.